Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
13-time F1 race winner David Coulthard could feel the “relief” from Lewis Hamilton after Singapore GP qualifying, having previously picked up on a conspiracy theory hint.
Qualifying has not been Hamilton’s friend for much of F1 2024, the seven-time World Champion having gone into the Singapore Grand Prix trailing team-mate George Russell 13-4 in that particular head-to-head, though Hamilton was able to notch his score up to five at the Marina Bay Circuit.
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes conspiracy theory vibe rejected
Hamilton delivered one of his greatest, if not the greatest lap of his F1 career at Marina Bay back in 2018 to take pole for that year’s Singapore Grand Prix, his best Q3 effort this time around putting him ahead of Mercedes team-mate Russell on the second row in P3.
And Coulthard could sense the significance of that lap for Hamilton, who he felt had recently been dropping conspiracy theory hints – ones he never believed – when it came to qualifying in his final Mercedes season ahead of joining Ferrari.
Speaking on Channel 4 after qualifying, Coulthard said: “They [Mercedes] were all at sea, even in free practice this morning, and you could see the actual relief and the pleasure when he [Hamilton] was doing the top three interviews, just how much that’s actually meant to him.
“Because he’s been scratching his head on Saturdays for the last several races. He’s been kind of questioning and leaving it out there as to is something being sabotaged within the team? I don’t believe that for a moment.
“But he was able to pull it together.”
Race day was not quite as smooth for Hamilton, who finished P6 and later opened up on his attempts to talk Mercedes out of starting him on the soft tyres, as the Silver Arrows split strategies with Russell on mediums.
“We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race, actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars,” said Hamilton as he spoke alongside Russell at an event for Mercedes’ partner Petronas.
“And for me, I was a bit perplexed by it. Because in the past, when we’ve ever been in that position… Normally if George has qualified well like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we’ll split the strategies, but we were so close. It didn’t make sense to me.
“So I battled as hard as I could to fight to go on the medium tyre, but the team continued to suggest that I started on the soft.
“And then when they took the tyre blankets off, everyone was on mediums…
“I was so angry, so already from that moment I’m frustrated.
“And then I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead. They were too fast. And then I trust tried to make that tyre last as long as could and I had to stop on Lap 17 and I knew from that moment, then the race was done for me, because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat.
“And we’d been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend, so we were changing so many different things. We got a good qualifying, but unfortunately, the race was too much of a struggle for us.”